Iran and the strategic encirclement of Syria and Lebanon

The encirclement of Syria and Lebanon has long been in the works. It appears that this roadmap is based on an Israeli document aimed at controlling Syria. The 1996 Israeli document (see A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm), which included prominent U.S. policy figures as authors, calls for “rolling back Syria”.

The roadmap outlines pushing the Syrians out of Lebanon, diverting the attention of Damascus by using an anti-Syrian opposition in Lebanon, and then destabilizing Syria with the help of both Jordan and Turkey. This has all respectively occurred from 2005 to 2011.

The roadmap ultimately seeks to foment sectarian divisions as a means of conquering Syria and creating a Shiite-Sunni rift that will oppose Iran, and keep the Arab monarchs in power. For several years Turkey has been silently trying to de-link Syria from Iran, and to displace Iranian influence in the Middle East.

Turkey has been working to promote itself and its image amongst the Arabs, but all along it has been a key component of the plans of Washington and NATO. At the same time, it has been upgrading its military capabilities in the Black Sea and on its borders with Iran and Syria. In September 2011, Ankara joined Washington’s missile shield project, which upset both Moscow and Tehran.

According to the Turkish media, France has sent its military trainers into Turkey and Lebanon to prepare conscripts against Syria. The so-called Free Syrian Army and other NATO-GCC front organizations are also using Turkish and Jordanian territory to stage raids into Syria. Lebanon is also being used to smuggle weapon shipments into Syria. Many of these weapons were actually arms that the Pentagon had secretly re-directed into Lebanon from Anglo-American occupied Iraq during the George W. Bush Jr. presidency. Meanwhile, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is imposing sanctions that include an end to all flights to Syria.

For years, Jordanian forces have successfully prevented weapons from reaching the Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank from Jordanian territory. These same Jordanian forces work as a frontline to protect Israel, and the Jordanian intelligence services are an extension of the C.I.A. and Mossad. In the Israeli Knesset, the events in Syria were naturally tied to reducing Iranian power in the Middle East. So Damascus is being targeted as a means of targeting Iran and, in broader terms, weakening Tehran, Moscow, and Beijing in the struggle for control over the Eurasian landmass.

The pressure on Syria is directly tied to the American withdrawal from Iraq and Washington’s efforts to block Tehran from making any geo-political gains. By removing Damascus from the equation, Washington and its allies are hoping to create a geo-strategic setback for Iran.

[Excerpt of an article by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya, social scientist,Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies]